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Re: Nova - Dirty Bombs - London Scenario question
Stewart's comment:
The scenario NOVA dramatized last night involved a whole lot more Cs-137, or
a source with 74,000 GBq of Cs-137 [2000 Ci] as I recall them mentioning.
For a point source of Cs-137 this equates to about 6.6E6 R/hr at 1 cm. If
the terrorists spent 1 hour at say 2 feet from this unshielded source [??? a
wag assumption] in fabricating the bomb and transporting it they would
receive about 7,000 R whole body.
comment:
a) However suppose terrorists instead 2 feet he keeps the source in a Van,
1.5 m away - the dose drop to about 300 R/h
b) Terrorist do not care for his life, today countries as Israel and USA
are forced to witness the hair's breadth of difference between the ability
to prevent a terrorist attack and the ability of the terrorists to blow
himself up and to be succeeded in his mission.
Jose Julio Rozental
joseroze@netvision.net.il
Israel
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart Farber" <farbersa@optonline.net>
To: "High Plains Drifter" <magna1@jps.net>; "Radsafe"
<radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 12:19 AM
Subject: Re: Nova - Dirty Bombs - London Scenario question
Hi all:
The scenario NOVA dramatized last night involved a whole lot more Cs-137, or
a
source with 74,000 GBq of Cs-137 [2000 Ci] as I recall them mentioning. For
a
point source of Cs-137 this equates to about 6.6E6 R/hr at 1 cm. If the
terrorists spent 1 hour at say 2 feet from this unshielded source [??? a wag
assumption] in fabricating the bomb and transporting it they would receive
about
7,000 R whole body.
Does anyone on the list have any feel for how quickly a person would be
incapacitated by receiving 7,000 to 10,000 R whole body?
The exposure to the hands and fingers of these terrorists fabricating such a
bomb
would have been much higher --perhaps 500,000 R for 10 minutes of handling
in
fabrication. Would these terrorists even have been able to drive a few hours
after handling a 2,000 Ci Cs-137 source for the time it would take to
fabricate a
bomb and transport it to the point of use??
Stewart Farber, MSPH
=======================
2/26/03 8:08:14 AM, High Plains Drifter <magna1@jps.net> wrote:
>
> I watched the NOVA "Dirty Bomb" program Tuesday night and came away with
the
> following thoughts:
>
>
> *Technical details about post bomb explosion risks were fragmented and
> interspersed with statistical mumbo jumbo that left one with the
feeling
> that any amount of radiation is hazardous.
> Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more
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